Karin Jurick portrait

Karin had a portrait exchange on her blog for December. 180 people swapped photos and did each others portraits, then exchanged the finished portraits with each other.
One of the artists, Jill Pollsby decided to thank Karin for all her efforts by organizing a portrait painting of Karin. 118 of us painted her from the same photo and Jill put all the portraits together in a book and sent it to Karin. It was a total surprise for Karin so we all had to keep it a secret for almost 2 months. You can see Karin's reaction on her blog
and you can see all 118 portraits here

Karin Jurick Challenge...Portrait Exchange

At the end of each year Karin Jurick has a portrait exchange for her blog followers. 180 people are participating this year. Very fun to see what everyone paints. This is the portrait I created from the photo reference at the right. You can see the others on Karin's blog

Karin Jurick Challenge...Sounds of Silence

Here is this month's Karin Jurick challenge. Her photo was of travelers at an airport. The pattern of the floor reminded me so much of my piano that I had to move them to the keyboard. Since they seemed to be so separate and uncommunicative I named this "Sounds of Silence" 9" x 12" watercolor on 300# arches

Sweet Temptation Jurick's Different Strokes challenge

Karin Jurick's latest challenge was cupcakes. Right up my alley. I left off the sprinkles.

Sunday on the Lake

This is the latest Karin Jurick challenge .....a gal rowing on Lake Michigan. 12" x 20" on Arches 300# cold press paper. Couldn't help but be reminded of all the wonderful Winslow Homer paintings of water.....I love looking at them. The one at the right is Homer's "Glouchester Harbor," oil, 1873.
All of the Jurick rowboat submissions look so similar. I usually try to do something different. If I had time to do this over I would just put a giant rubber ducky on the lake.

Fly by Nightshade

This is the latest Karin Jurick challenge......a plate of summer vegetables.
Since I've been focusing on bees and bugs lately, I decided to add a little pest.

Diana's Moonlight Hunt

This is the latest challenge for Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks blog. She provided the photo of the marble statue of "A Companion of Diana." Since Diana was the goddess of the moon and the hunt, I decided to place her on a moonlight hunt. Thank you Karin. These challenges are great fun. This piece may be purchased on my website http://www.dianemorganpaints.com/

Chopsticks

Another challenge from Karin Jurick's Different Strokes blog. The photo provided was sushi. I had been wanting to paint this little gal for quite awhile. This was the perfect opportunity. This 8” x 10" watercolor on 300# Arches watercolor paper is available matted and ready for framing for $475 on my website http://www.dianemorganpaints.com/

Hear No, See No, Speak No

This is the latest challenge from Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks blog. The photo Karin provided was of mannequin heads with wigs in a store window. There are over 80 artists who contribute their interpretation to her blog. It’s always fun to see what everyone comes up with. I decided to focus on the three that caught my eye. The dark glasses reminded me of "see no evil" so the rest just had to be. This 8” x 10" watercolor on 300# Arches watercolor paper is available matted and ready for framing for $275 on my website http://www.dianemorganpaints.com/

Walking on Air

This week's Karin Jurick challenge was to paint upside down, using the reference photo in the upside down position. This was to make you paint using shapes rather than the actual images. I must admit it actually made me a little dizzy. The brain kept wanting to turn the image right side up. Well, since the lady was suspended I figured she must have been walking on air, and gravity would be having its way with her. That made me think of the most famous uplifted skirt. This 11" x 10" watercolor on 300# Arches is available for $275 on my website http://www.dianemorganpaints.com/

Frozen in Time

Not only are these people cold, their future seems uncertain. I love doing these Karin Jurick weekly challenges. They are just plain fun. Not that I don't love what I do everyday, but these are kinda like recess. This ready-to-be-framed 9" x 7"watercolor on Arches cold press paper with a simple white mat (outside measurement 12" h x 10") is available for $225 on my website http://www.dianemorganpaints.com/

Aunt Lucille goes to Washington

Another "different strokes" painting challenge posed by Karin Jurick. The choice of the Capitol Building is timely. My rendition of my Aunt Lucille climbing the steps was from a photo of an era long gone. Times certainly have changed. My aunt always reminded me of Queen Elizabeth. Her father, my grandfather came to the US from England by himself at the age of 17. He then got drafted and had to go back to Europe to fight in WWI. My aunt worshipped the Queen and watched her every move. My aunt passed away several years ago. I painted this in her memory. This watercolor is 5" x 7" on Arches cold press. You can see more of my work on my website http://www.dianemorganpaints.com/

Moooonlight

This was another weekly "different strokes" painting challenge posed by Karin Jurick. I have to thank her for helping me break out of my normal routine. My usual "modus operandi" is to replicate a still life set-up or photograph I have taken. Since I knew that 70 or 80 people would be posting similar renditions of her cow, I wanted to try to do something different from Karin's photograph. I knew I wanted to move the horizon to accentuate the cow’s face, and I wanted to alter the composition a bit and change the time of day. The challenge got me thinking about creating a story rather than just painting what I saw. That’s what being an artist is supposed to be all about. Thanks to a workshop I took with Elin Pendleton I knew what colors to use to change the time of day. This was so much fun. I feel I’ve created a “work of art” rather than just reproducing a photograph. I’ve done hundreds of paintings over the past 30 years. I think this may be one of my favorites. This is an 8" x 10" watercolor on Arches 300# cold press paper. Available unframed for $475 on my website http://www.dianemorganpaints.com/

Different Shades of Pale

One of my favorite artists, Karin Jurick, posts a new photo on her blog every week for artists to create their own interpretation. Great fun. These white pumpkins are this week’s challenge. Go to http://www.karinjurick.blogspot.com/ to see her blog and the "Different Strokes" challenge with all of this week's pumpkin art.